Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c8.s5.t1.2

c8.s5.t1.2

The most archaic forms of the Sanskrit scripts of the Tamil districts, which usually are classed as "Grantha," are found on the copper-plates of the Pallava kings of Palakkada and (? or) Daśanapura² (plate VII, cols. XX, XXI) from the 5th or the 6th century (?), with which the ancient inscriptions, Nos. 1 to 16, of the Dharmarājaratha (plate VII, col. XXII)³ closely agree. These inscriptions, together with a few others,⁴ exhibit what may be called the archaic Grantha, the latest example of which occurs in the Bādāmi inscription, incised, according to FLEET'S newest researches,⁵ by the Pallava Narasiṁha I., during his expedition against the Calukya Pulakeśin II. (A. D. 609 and about 642) in the second quarter of the 7th century; and it seems to have gone out soon after, as the Kūram plates of Narasiṁha's son Parameśvara I. show letters of a much more advanced type. It is met with also in the stone inscription from Jambu in Java; see IA. 4, 356.